The Saudi crown prince arrives at the G20 summit in Bali as a winner

After being a political leper, the global energy crisis made Mohammed bin Salman a reborn leader

The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, is continuing his renewed legitimization process, this time with his arrival at the G20 summit meeting this week in Bali, Indonesia.

Until about nine months ago, the actual leader of the kingdom was considered a “political leper” in the West, however the war in Ukraine and the global energy crisis Make Saudi Arabia a popular destination For world leaders in their attempt to locate alternative sources of oil.

Despite the strengthening of his international status, bin Salman will not, according to reports, have a personal meeting with US President Joe Biden. The two They met in Jeddah last July And it seemed that the bilateral relations between the countries were on a course of correction. But then came the decision of the oil producers united in OPEC+, led by Saudi Arabia and Russia, to cut output by 2 million barrels a day, and cooled relations again. Since then, an effort by the Saudis to appease the Biden administration has been evident, even though positions are hardening in Washington. The victory of the Democrats In the mid-term elections, or at least the containment of the Republican red wave, is not a good news for the Saudis. They expected that in the next two years they would have to work with a weakened president at home, but now they will have to put up with the strengthening position of the Democratic Party and the attempts of its members to impose punitive measures on the kingdom.

Even before the current crisis, Saudi Arabia was already in the process of looking for new alliances, mainly in the East. The Saudis have expressed their desire to join the BRICS group of countries, which accounts for a quarter of global GDP and 16% of international trade. This step is intended, first and foremost, to strengthen Saudi Arabia’s economic ties with China – and it seems that the more relations with Washington cool, the stronger they will become with Beijing. Jing.

Financially, bin Salman arrives in Bali as a winner. The performance of the Saudi economy this year is one of the best among the 20 strongest economies in the world. According to official data, in the third quarter the local economy grew by 8.6%, the highest figure among the G20. At the same time, the inflation rate amounted to 2.9%, one of the lowest among the G20 countries. Saudi Arabia’s budget surplus in the third quarter reached $3.76 billion.

What drives the Saudi economy are the oil revenues, which reach an annual rate of about 250 billion dollars, but they create a positive effect on the other sectors of the economy. During the third quarter, the non-oil sector registered an impressive growth of about 6%. Even in the field of foreign trade, Bin Salman comes with a nice achievement. The Kingdom’s trade surplus rose to approximately 19 billion dollars, as of the end of August 2022, a figure that represents an 87% jump compared to the same period last year. This increase is occurring despite ongoing difficulties in global supply chains. Since the beginning of the year, Saudi exports to China, Japan and the USA have indeed grown, but the two markets that recorded the largest increase in imports from Saudi Arabia were India and South Korea.

The writer is the manager of the Concord company, www.cocordmena.com